Judge pulls out KNIFE in court during teenage stabbing trial

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A judge stunned a court yesterday when he pulled a blade out of his pocket - while sitting on a knife crime case.

Judge Roger Connor brandished his knife in front of a 16-year-old boy accused of wounding with intent and assault.

The boy, who denies the charges, admits using a folding knife but claims he needed only one hand to open it.

Judge Connor pulled out his blade at Oxford Crown Court, saying: 'I have a folding pocket knife in my pocket. You need two hands to open it don't you?'

John Simmons, for the boy, questioned whether carrying the knife in public was legal but the judge said it was as the blade was less than 3in long.

However, furious anti-knife crime campaigners spoke out in horror yesterday and claimed the deputy circuit judge was setting the wrong example.

Lyn Costello, the co-founder of the Mother's Against Murder and Aggression campaign group said that the judge should lose his job.

She said: 'I'm absolutely sickened - I've never heard anything so disgraceful. He should lose his job.

'I will be writing to the Attorney-General about it - at the moment one teenager a week is being murdered on the streets of Britain and here he is brandishing a knife.

'Enough is enough - we need to get tough on knives in this country and our judges should be handing out tough sentences - not brandishing their own.

'There's no reason why he needs the knife there with him in the courtroom - long gone are the days when a blade was needed to remove a stone from a horse's hoove.

'It is legal to carry a blade less than three inches but if it is a lock knife then it is illegal to have it.

'Technically it is legal to have a folding pocket knife in public but it is something of a grey area. Whatever the case, clearly the public don't want him carrying it.'

The 16-year-old defendant, who denies two counts of wounding with intent and two of assault, cannot be named.

The case relates to the stabbing of two youths at a party in Shirburn Road, Watlington, Oxon.

The trial continues.